There is an old saying in Washington regarding much of what goes on in the executive and legislative branches: “Those that know aren’t talking; and those talking don’t know.” Certainly much the same can be said of papal conclaves. The records that are kept, the ballots cast by the cardinal-electors, are burned in the stove. The cardinals themselves are sworn to secrecy about the proceedings. Nonetheless, there is clearly some post-conclave talking that occurs, much of it evidently cryptic and vague as the pictures that emerge are similar but far from identical.
In attempting to piece together what occurred inside the Sistine Chapel in October 1978, and paint as accurate a picture as possible as to how the conclaves in 1978 were conducted, I relied on numerous sources including: Frederic J. Baumgartner’s, Behind Locked Doors: a History of the Papal Elections; John-Peter Pham’s , Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession; Andrew Greeley’s, The Making of the Popes; numerous contemporaneous news reports such as the coverage of the Washington Post of the conclave; and numerous other items on the internet such as this.
Some of what one finds on the internet is, as might be expected, either conspiratorial or otherwise suspect. Accordingly, for those sources purporting to have details of the actual votes in the eight scrutinies (such as the Pham book) it took to elect John Paul II, I actually built a spreadsheet and compared the reported votes and voting trends. Interestingly, according to one source it was Cardinal Benelli who was almost elected on the fourth scrutiny, according to another it was Cardinal Siri on the fifth. The votes being followed by Katherine in the CIA van in Chapters 21-23 reflect a reasoned guess – although still a guess — on how the voting went, and accepts the possibility that it was Cardinal Benelli who almost gathered the necessary seventy-five votes.
I accepted this interpretation, as the part of the story that remains the most intriguing is the interview given by Cardinal Siri to Gianni Licheri, the reporter for Gazetta del Popolo. The interview was given with instructions it not be released until the conclave had convened in the Sistine Chapel. Yet somehow it leaked and the cardinal electors received copies. It has never been explained how the leak happened, and who orchestrated it, but it clearly placed Siri on the defensive and his chief aide was quoted as saying it was leaked to “torpedo” his papal candidacy.
Whether the Licheri interview directly “torpedoed” Cardinal Siri is not known, but the interview and its leakage was clearly something worth enhancing and weaving into the story in a way that suggested a degree of outside interference with the conclave and its outcome. After the conclave, Cardinal Siri had been curt, even rude, with reporters interviewing him, whereas the American cardinals seemed quite pleased with the election, a sentiment vocally expressed rather firmly by… Cardinal John Krol.